


Always Time For Us

by helenkacan



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: American Politics, Community: romancingmcshep, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Post-Series, Pre-Slash, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 11:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10017128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helenkacan/pseuds/helenkacan
Summary: Imagine John, Rodney, and mysterious multi-billionaire Mr. X salvaging Atlantis after 10+ years ... unused and stuck on Earth, getting it staffed and back to the Pegasus Galaxy.Imagine John and Rodney finding each other unexpectedly, while exploring a thrilling (perhaps dangerous) invention. IOW, life as normal back in Pegasus!





	

**Author's Note:**

> I had to fudge the time-line, so it's not exactly present day (if one counts from the year SGA was shelved IRL). The (fictional) U.S. Administration has been spiralling down for at least 10 years. Science, technology, and space exploration have been receiving less and less attention and funding. Also, TPTB have been hiding their heads in the sand about the dangers posed by the Wraith. For the sake of easing my writing burden, I'm pretending the Goa'uld, Lucian Alliance, and any other baddies simply do not exist in this version of the SGC.
> 
> [I always like to infuse my writing with a touch of real life. If it's not clear enough, Canadian rescue flight teams in Antarctica rock!]

John felt _her_ tiny tremors the moment he stepped down onto the deck from the Puddlejumper, one of several currently operating from the Ex-Cor., the successful bidder of all that had been the SGC. It's as if the old girl had lingered in a decade-long hypothermic coma – she really had - but was attempting to regain consciousness ... just to acknowledge and welcome back her favourite son.

It was no wonder that she'd been snoozing, considering that the SGC – under orders from idiots higher up - had mothballed the "Pegasus Project" more than ten years ago when the city had flown to Earth to stop the Super-Hive. And what better place to put the project on ice than in Antarctica near the Ancient outpost. It was considered _secure_ enough (after the city had been flown farther than even the most reckless – and successful – Canadian medical rescue flight crew would venture) surrounded by nothing but ice. They'd not even bothered to strip the city of equipment, just copied the database before abandoning it under a thin synthetic shell, with all the scientists and military then dispersing around the globe, while Teyla and Ronon had been shoved through the gate as if they were _strangers_. Definitely, the "other".

John took one last look at the unrelenting plains of ice and snow, eerily reminiscent of the bleak wasteland when he'd been transported 48,000 years into the future ... surrounded by a dried-up ocean. Now, though, things were about to change.

He turned to head indoors where – in stark contrast to the lack of movement outside – hundreds of personnel were bustling about, intent on getting the city ready to return to Pegasus. John dreaded the moment he'd bump into Rodney. The two had basically become uncommunicative once everyone had been kicked off the city, John getting bumped up to full bird before retiring and living on the Oregon coast – less touristy than Cali while nurturing him with the strength and serenity of an ocean - while Rodney and Jennifer had flown to Wisconsin. John hadn't replied to the wedding invitation a year later that had eventually reached him via his brother's house. He knew he would have loathed every minute of the superficial ceremony, watching Rodney do something stupid.

His premonitions of a nasty crash and burn had been eerily accurate, as the marriage only lasted eight months, after which Rodney was once again on the market. Not the marriage market, but the one where scientists from all over the world negotiated their skills with incredibly powerful people.

Despite his misgivings about Rodney's personal life, John had kept an ear open to anything he was involved in. When Rodney started to consult for the elusive Mr. X, John was intrigued. Mr. X was worth billions, creating or investing in multiple successful ventures ... all the way to space exploration. Luckily, the SGC had reached out to him following Rodney's warning of a potential problem at the beginning stages, to see whether Mr. X might be interested in taking certain projects off its hands at a time when the then-current U.S. administration was less than _enthusiastic_ about going to other worlds in the Milky Way, let alone to another Galaxy.

The SGC had been wise to avoid the embarrassment of having an outsider _discover_ that space travel was far more prevalent than merely having rockets – even the novelty of reusable ones – making round trips between the ISS and Earth.

The government had been only too happy to accept cash for all assets of the SGC, cash they'd use to fool the American public – perhaps the world - into believing they'd improved the economy.

Though the IOA had been disbanded, all former Atlantis personnel as well as some very special additions from the SGC had been recruited to return - whether civilian (reporting to a three-member council based on Atlantis with input from Mr. X who chose to remain on Earth), scientific (reporting to Rodney, as he'd expected, with Radek and Miko as equal colleagues) or military (reporting to ... him and two other senior officers).

Despite the city still being on Earth, John hoped he'd soon be gazing out into space. He gave an uncomfortable tug at the unfamiliar uniform jacket (thankfully black, but with silver stripes on the collar denoting military and stars on his shoulder showing rank). He felt like a space marine on a hokey TV show. The only thing missing was the velcro flag patch. On this mission, country of affiliation was irrelevant.

At least his presence was noted with smiles and nods as he passed several old faces on his way to Ops where two more familiar faces greeted him. Chuck and Amelia as well as most of the old Ops crew had signed on for the return trip to Pegasus.

"Welcome back, sir."

"Thanks, Chuck." He nodded at Amelia. "Good to be back, I think." It felt weird to be seeing them in their new uniforms without those familiar shoulder patches. "Uh ... could you tell me where the Military Ops offices are."

"Col. Lorne and Major O'Neill chose the top level of Tower F."

After he'd accepted a new radio comm clip, confirmed the location of his new quarters where no doubt his belongings had already been delivered, John headed to the transporter. Though it might still be considered freaky to have the de-aged clone of one's former CO as third in command, it was also reassuring to know this revived expedition would have several layers of expertise throughout the ranks.

John couldn't remember having ever explored Tower F, originally considered too unstable to use. But one of Mr. X's stipulations had been that the city had to be explored, assessed, and repaired – top to bottom – before heading back to Pegasus. John couldn't wait to find out just what had been discovered. Even if it meant talking to Rodney.

In the days that followed prior to their scheduled departure date, John found that Rodney seemed to be avoiding him as well. They didn't need to be at the same meetings, as Mr. X had streamlined the need for attending irrelevant staff meetings. A pool of stenographers transcribed each meeting, tagged each memo, and then distributed it to parties who needed to be kept informed.

Rodney wasn't even in the Chair Room when John lifted the city up away from the continent's bright late-summer glare. Next stop, Atlantis.

::~::~::

After John had eased the city onto the placid ocean of its current world, he fell into a routine: sleep, running (alone, which made him miss Ronon even more), meetings, meals (not alone, but Evan and Jon were no substitutes for his old team), dispatching teams through the Gate trying to find Teyla and Ronon ... and loop endlessly.

But he wasn't the only one with a routine. One evening, he was surprised when Radek contacted him, asking for a meeting in private. Intrigued, he replied they should meet in Radek's personal lab.

"Apologies for disturbing your downtime so late, Colonel. But I have noticed on my console pattern of energy spikes – originating from Rodney's quarters – every single night for one week. Lab log shows he leaves at 2445 each night and energy spike happens at 2500. Duration is only for few seconds, but equipment does not lie."

John peered over Radek's shoulder as he pointed out the pertinent spikes. "I appreciate your bringing this to my attention without creating a fuss, Radek. Let's find out first what Rodney's been doing. It could be a glitch or it could be something serious."

It was too late to try to catch Rodney up to no good, so John monitored the output from his own quarters. He needed sleep and wondered just how Rodney could be functioning without sleep. When Radek had shown him the logs from several labs, it turned out that Rodney had spent some time in each one, eating up the overnight hours. Night after night. John wanted to understand. He needed to understand. Waylaying Rodney the next night was his plan.

"Hey, buddy. Finally getting ready to hit the hay?"

John watched as Rodney's arms flailed while he tried to regain his balance. And composure.

"Of course, I'm going to hit the hay, Sheppard. What do you think I'm doing back at my quarters?"

John's slouch became more pronounced. "Oh, dunno. You could – I'm just guessing – be working on something Ancient-y that has you going all night long. Haven't you figured out how dangerous that is? You're not twenty any longer."

"Look, Sheppard, let's not have this conversation out in the corridor." He waited until the doors had swooshed behind them before continuing. "I've found and tweaked a personal dilation field. Started using it a few nights ago, so I can get a full night's sleep and then still tackle my other obligations overnight."

John's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "You did what? Are you out of your mind?"

Rodney sat down on his bed so he could remove his boots. "I did follow precautions. There's a mental component which should come as no surprise to you, but it was easy enough to create an alarm that straddles the barrier, if I'm incapacitated for any reason, to bring me back. There's an algorithm to return me one second after I left."

While Rodney appeared to be getting ready for bed, John had begun to pace back and forth. Then he stopped and held his arms out, palms in a _halt_ position. "That's the last time you do something so risky without my being with you. Do you understand?"

"You seem awfully keen to spend the night with me."

John rolled his eyes. "I'm just trying to keep you safe. And to watch out for you. The last thing I need is for something to happen to you that you can't get out of. Like if a personal shield didn't detach or fizzled when you needed it the most. Or an Ascension device killed you."

"I didn't know you cared."

John's reply was low, intense, and deliberate. "I never stopped caring, Rodney." He watched as Rodney's eyes opened wide in shock. "And I have no intention of stopping now."

He saw Rodney's mouth opening, then closing. A hand rose to point at him accusingly.

"Why didn't you say anything when you had the chance? Even after DADT was struck down."

John sighed and shrugged. "The relaxed rules would have never applied to me, not with that black mark. It was only when we saved Earth that I could have taken that chance. But...."

Rodney caught the tail end of what John was trying to say. "But, by then, it was already too late. I was with Jen."

John shrugged again. "Yeah." He didn't feel the need to say anything else.

"So ... what do we do now?"

"About us? Nothing." He watched as Rodney's face fell, then appended, "For the moment. Right now, we're going to sit here and talk for a while. Just until you give me the basics of this miniature Sanctuary zone. When I leave, I want your promise that you'll sleep in your bed tonight without activating the zone."

John saw Rodney deflate. And nod. "Then what?"

"In the morning, we'll visit Carson. Don't worry, you can cite patient confidentiality and I'll back you up. But he needs to record your vitals, so that he can monitor whether spending what amounts to around a third of a day in a dilation field will contribute to your aging more rapidly."

"Even if all I'm doing is sleeping?"

"Even if that's all you're doing. After you've been checked out, I'll get Carson to take my readings. And then I'll be sleeping right here with you."

Rodney's face flushed suddenly. "So, not just spending the night, but sleeping with me."

"Maybe in your wildest dreams but we won't be doing any sleeping _together_ until we've tested the zone. I just hope we won't find that the Ancients screwed us over again with faulty tech or suicidal side-effects. So, move over and make room for me." As Rodney complied, John kicked off his own boots and lay down. Time to learn exactly how the miniature zone worked.

::~::~::

John was already lying in bed when Rodney trudged into their shared quarters. Though it was late, Rodney commented on the book John was reading. "Wait. You didn't bring 'War and Peace' on this trip?"

"Nah. Got tired of it. Had so much time on my hands I picked up Russian. I prefer reading Chekov now."

Rodney stared at John, then began to chuckle. "Oh, you so have to come by the lab when Karlova is gossiping with Mary-- Maryinski in Russian. She thinks I don't know what they're babbling about."

"So, why don't you put a stop to it?"

"I don't want those nitwits to know I understand every word they're saying. But if you were to give them an earful, they'd probably shut up for a while. Days, if not weeks."

John's eyebrows quirked. "Sure, I don't mind. But, if they're such idiots, why did you accept their applications in the first place?"

"Oh, that's easy. Even the most plodding scientist can be an idiot savant, reliable at one thing. These two are patient and precise with their results. He checks her work and she checks his, in the spirit of comradely Russian competitiveness. So they made the cut."

John's voice turned husky. "Speaking of making the cut, could you please get naked before I have to cut your very nice uniform from your equally very nice body?" It was true. Rodney's body was toned with slight muscle definition. Whatever Jen's faults might have been as a co-creator of marital discord, at least she'd managed to persuade Rodney to change his eating and workout habits.

Rodney smiled. "I think I can get behind that idea. Definitely behind _you_."

John watched, fascinated, as Rodney began immediately to strip out of his very nice uniform, tossing the clothes haphazardly in the direction of the closet, before rolling over onto his side. In moments, skin-to-skin contact had been achieved. He knew that Chekov – as well as coherent thinking – was done for the night.

John still marvelled at how things had worked out over the last few months, not only for Rodney and him, but also for all of Atlantis and their benefactor Mr. X. John reminded himself to surprise Rodney in the morning. He'd sent Mr. X a concept proposal for a portable dilation zone device that could have a wide-ranging commercial application, especially for holidayers. Mr. X was delighted by the benevolent yet profitable possibilities. Now all John had to do was persuade Rodney to invent it ... along with its tiny safe power source.

John rocked back against the warm body of his lover. There was no hurry. They could tease each other for hours, then nap, before returning to more pleasure. For them, there would always be time.

**Author's Note:**

> Dear wonderful prompters:
> 
> I took the liberty of smushing your old prompts together to create my story. Thank you for the unusual inspiration.
> 
> PROMPTS:  
> 113\. Post Series, 10+ years later Atlantis has been mothballed! All Pegasus natives got sent home. Everyone gone their separate ways. Rodney and Jennifer married but broke up. John's still not quite got over the fact that he chose Jennifer in the first place so they're not really talking to each other. John can feel Atlantis pining for home ... or maybe that's just him.  
> Bonus if John and Rodney pull together the old team and take Atlantis home.
> 
> 122\. Rodney discovers the science behind a time dilation field but doesn't tell anyone. He secretly uses his quarters to create his own sanctuary so he can get a good night's sleep and then be productive through night to achieve 'science-y things'. No one realizes Rodney isn't 'sleeping' except Sheppard. He knows something is up when Zelenka mentions power spikes every night around the same time Rodney heads back to his quarters. Sheppard 'investigates'. McKay & Sheppard take advantage of the hours = minutes in Rodney's quarters.
> 
> OR maybe Rodney discovers it and sets the time dilation field up on a beach on the mainland and they use it as a 'vacation spot' for everyone on Atlantis. People can have a week vacation without disrupting any schedules or daily functioning duties on Atlantis. (So, basically, I just want some fun PWP.)
> 
> DISCLAIMER 1)  
> I'm sure anyone who's not a moron (thanks, Rodney) will guess WHO the mysterious Mr. X (worth billions and making reusable rockets; with a Canadian mother) is or WHAT (gee, that name sorta, kinda reminds me of....) Ex-Cor. is supposed to be. Trying to be a decent human being to disassociate real people from simple search algorithms, I will not confirm his name and ask that you do not write it in comments either. Obviously, I just thought it would be neat to include his character (and most welcome investment) in the Atlantis story moving forward.
> 
> DISCLAIMER 2)  
> Obviously, so not mine (though abandoned by TPTB just like the city here). Not for profit, just personal enjoyment and your reading pleasure.


End file.
